Elephants in the Room

You can’t be all things to all people. A close look across the economic development arena bears witness to the reality that not everyone puts this wisdom into practice, particularly in application of targeted industries—another elephant in the room that we can’t keep walking around. Targeted industries are those defined by governing bodies using criteria designed to narrow the focus of economic development.

Communities of all sizes continue to struggle mired in the uncertainty lingering from the Great Recession or fear of the next economic downturn. Meanwhile, every level of government faces the steep challenge of aging infrastructure and the demands placed on current revenues to meet expanding healthcare and education costs. Economic growth remains paramount, but private and public sector stakeholders alike express quiet frustration as the short-comings of traditional economic development become more evident. To fix what’s broken, we have to be willing to talk about the elephant in the room.

Every three to five years a ritual is repeated in communities and organizations across America. For local governments and private-sector stakeholders trying to break stagnation or atrophy, strategic planning is a natural beginning point. It just makes too much sense. Our clients appropriately ask, “Shouldn’t we determine our goals and objectives before deciding how to spend money or launch new initiatives?”